Earlier this week, I hit my one-year working in venture capital full-time.
Here are some quick observations on how to “make it“ in VC/startup land.
Venture capital and startups seems like the gold rush era. Everyone's seemingly working so hard to make it. But I think one of the craziest things to see in this space was seeing people work hard and still not make it.
I primarily work out of a co-working space. So I have an idea of who is there consistently, who is there late, and who is there early. And there are people that check all three who have achieved “success”: a couple million in ARR, VC funding, and a successful, sustainable business. But then there are those that have not achieved that. Those that seem like they are in the same spot that they were one year ago when I first started.
Why is that? I thought 996 was the formula that automatically made you successful.
Given the hard work I've seen these people go through, it seems like they deserve success, but makes me think, what are they missing? And what is the “it” factor?
I have no idea.
But here are some observations I've noticed of success besides “hard work“":
People skills are half of the game.
Maybe even more or less, depending on how cracked the founder is. I've heard many stories of people having conversations in SF, and the next day they receive a nice $100K angel check, seemingly out of likability. The point being is that if people like you in this space, they will fund you and they will back you. Your network also obviously plays a role in success and over time, it'll only get stronger and more useful. But I've also noticed that network and likability really isn't everything. Once again, it seems to boil down to doing the actual work and having the proof to point to (revenue, users, etc). This is why the YC founder can make the same post as you and do much better on social media because they have the actual proof to point to.
Most successful people work on one thing.
Working on one thing seems trivial. But in practice, it's actually kind of difficult. You have to pay the bills. You have to pay rent. You have to work a job before your startup starts making revenue. Many people don't have the luxury of going all-in on their startup. However, it seems like this context switching might play a factor. Most if not all the successful people that I've talked to in this space work diligently on their one thing every single day, and they do nothing else. And they move with a confident delusion that this one thing will work out. And it seems with time, it does. The earlier you can go all-in, the better it seems. But, maybe it's not that doing multiple things doesn't make you successful. Maybe, it just takes longer to get there.
Everything takes time (hopefully).
Every startup success story seems to come with a lot of pivots, a lot of failures, and a lot of years. And it most definitely takes more than one year to build generational companies. I’m excited for where the people around me will go in the coming years. To see the hard work of the people around me pay off.
It seems like, if you stay consistent in the game long enough, success will come (hopefully).